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Friday, November 29, 2013

Cinder and Ella by Melissa Lemon

Cinder and Ella

By Melissa Lemon

Blurb: After her father's
disappearance, Cinder leaves home for a servant job at the castle. But
it isn't long before her sister Ella is brought to the castle herself.
What Ella finds there starts a quest that will change her life and the
entire kingdom. Cinder and Ella is a Cinderella story like no other, and
one you'll never forget.

Genres: Young Adult, Retellings, Fantasy, Romance

Published: October 27, 2011

Series: N/A

My Rating: 1.5 stars

Well.

I had some higher hopes for this book; it promised to be a retelling completely new and original, an old story made new. Or at least, that's pretty much how I interpreted the blurb. And, it gave me...well, I mean I guess it kind of gave me that. But the thing was, I would NOT have guessed this was a Cinderella retelling unless I knew beforehand. Really, the only thing that gives that away in the book is that the two main characters are Cinder and Ella. That's honestly it.

Okay, I thought. Well, it's definitely not the retelling I was hoping for, but maybe, if I don't think of it as a retelling, I shall not be disappointed. But the thing is it was still boring. It was snail-paced.

A book doesn't have to have action to be good, that's true. But I didn't feel that the book had outstanding character development, unexpected twists, or wonderful prose. (It wasn't so bad, but it seemed to be written in the same way that so many other retellings are)

There were a couple original ideas in this one, though, like the whole tree thing. Those originalities are what kept me reading, I think.

So, one and a half stars for this one. It wasn't terrible, but I didn't particularly enjoy it. I felt like the story would be better if a few more aspects of the original tale were used.